Consumers Experience Vast Increases in Mobile Broadband Speed

RootMetrics compared mobile broadband speeds between the first half of 2014 and the second half of 2019. Among the four national wireless carriers, Verizon has already increased its mobile broadband speed the most. Verizon’s rolling average median download speed across 125 markets generally outstripped other carriers in measures taken twice yearly during the time frame. AT&T and T-Mobile became serious challengers in 2017, with all carriers showing considerable mobile broadband speed gains, the comparisons show. The comparison was made between the dates – which cover the six years between the widespread rollout of 4G LTE and the similar expansion of 5G — in an effort to illustrate how real-world mobile broadband experience experiences of consumers are evolving.

4G LTE coverage reached a point of near ubiquity in approximately 2017. 4G LTE technology and carrier aggregation clearly played significant roles in the speed increases. It’s also clear that new technologies take time to mature. It was a few years after 4G LTE deployments before all four carriers began consistently registering median download speeds of 20 Mbps or faster.